


The 6th Stage of Grief

by Arizona96



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Grief/Mourning, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-05 11:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18364772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arizona96/pseuds/Arizona96
Summary: After Wally West dies, Barry Allen adds a 6th stage to grief. Denial, anger, running, bargaining, depression, acceptance. He's bringing his nephew back, no matter what.





	1. Running and Bargaining

The others are mourning him. They've even given him a statue near where Mount Justice used to be. They're trying to accept and move on. But not him. Barry Allen has a plan. He owes it the kid's mom, he owes it to Artemis who he just watched break down, and most of all; he owes it to the kid himself. It's Barry's fault after all, he thinks to himself. Wally had gotten out of the life. And he made a better one for himself. He had slowed down as much as was possible for a speedster. Barry knew when the kid had showed up at the North Pole that he should have sent him home. He couldn't even describe the utter horror he felt when he saw his arm go straight through Wally. Guilt pierced him like a spear as Wally asked him to tell his parents and Artemis goodbye. And he watched in despair as Wally faded completely. Barry shakes away his thoughts of Wally's death as he tries to focus on bringing him back. Wally's a speedster. And he died running. Barry is hopeful that means that Wally ended up in the Speed Force. And the Speed Force might be persuaded to give him back. That's Barry's plan at least. He finds an empty race track, and pauses for a single second. Breathes in, breathes out. Takes position and then *runs*! Faster and faster around the circle chasing his own speed trail. Finally the wormhole opens and he blazes in. Moments in time fly by him, half buried in hazy smoke. He ignores them and instead focuses on his goal. Like a bullet from a gun, he bursts out of the tunnel into bright sunlight. He looks around, the scene is so real. The sunlight is warm and bright; the breeze is nice and cool, with a hint of the sea. He stops dead when he comes face to face with the statue of Wally. The Speed Force has recreated Wally's "final resting place". His statue is the only one here though. Robin's, Blue Beetle's, and Tula's are nowhere to be found. Barry removes the cowl of his costume, and moves to stand right in front of Kid Flash. He stares up at the image of his nephew smiling, well smirking, down at him. He turns his back on the statue and begins calling out, "Kid!" He spins in a circle. "Wally! Kid, if you can hear me, I'm here to bring you back. Kid!!" "He's not here right now, Flash." Barry spins to find the source of the voice. He steps back in surprise. "Mom?!?" He whispers in almost disbelief. "This can't...you're not....that's not you," he stutters out. The imposter of his mother smiles gently and shakes her head. "We're not your mother, Barry," she says softly. "We thought it might be easier to appear to you in a form that was familiar. Comforting." Barry shakes his head in confusion. "We? What do you mean 'we'? And wheres Wally?" His mother smiles again and gestures over to a bench near the statue. "Maybe you should sit down and we will explain." Barry follows his mother over to the bench and slowly lowers himself down next to her. He reaches out a hand to touch hers, but pulls back just before contact. "Sorry," he says. "It's just....I haven't seen you, her, in a long time." "We know, Barry," his mother says with sympathy in her voice. "We know you were very young when she was taken from you. We are the Speed Force. We are the source of your powers. And the powers of all speedsters." Now that Barry had gotten over the shock of seeing his dead mother, he can think more clearly. He leans forward and says, "You said earlier that Wally wasn't here right now." She nods in agreement. "Does that mean that he *is* here?" She nods again. "He is, Flash. But we know what you're planning to do. And we're sorry, but Wally West cannot go back with you." Barry shoots to his feet. "Why not!?!?" He yells. "He's just a kid, he didn't deserve to die! If he's here instead of where regular people go after death, doesn't that mean he gets another chance at life??" His mother smiles, despite Barry's angry tone. She reaches out to take his arm. "Barry, you don't understand. This is death. For speedsters at least. You're too fast for the regular way, so we bring you here instead." "But," Barry starts to say before his mother cuts him off. She says in a comforting voice, "We know Wally is young, but this was meant to happen. Death comes to all. Even speedsters. Even heroes." She stands and places her hand on the side of Barry's face. He shudders and closes his eyes, trying to commit the feel to memory. "We know you're grieving, Barry." He sucks in a breath as if she had stabbed him instead of just telling him the truth. "We know, and we are sorry. But we cannot allow Wally to leave here." Barry opens his eyes when he feels her hand leave his face. She's backing away, with a sad smile on her face, red hair drifting in the breeze. "We will allow you to speak with him before you leave. Say goodbye. Get messages for his loved ones. And then go home, Flash." Barry takes a step towards her retreating figure, mouth open to say something, when she suddenly disappears. He spins in a circle trying to find her, but finds nothing but the peaceful mountainside. He knew it wasn't really her, but the pain of losing her, again, hits him afresh. He sits down in front of his nephew's statue and waits for him to appear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kinda borrowing from the CW's Flash, well at least their version of what the speed force looks like. I'll post the second chapter soon. As always, constructive criticism appreciated


	2. Acceptance Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saying goodbye is never easy

He's only sitting for a moment when he hears, "Uncle Barry?" from behind him. He's standing in a millisecond and turns to face the real Wally West. The kid is still in his costume so it's a little disconcerting to see a mirror image Kid Flash. Barry doesn't even remember moving, one second he's feet away and in the next he has the kid in his arms in a crushing hug. "Kid," he breathes into Wally's hair. Wally is hugging him back just as hard, his face buried in Barry's neck. "It's you," Wally whispers. "It's really you." They break the hug and step back, Barry drinking in the sight of his nephew "alive" and breathing. Wally studies his uncle critically before asking, "You're not dead too are you? Cause I think Aunt Iris would be super pissed if you were." Barry laughs. Trust the kid to find humor at a time like this. "No, I'm still alive," he says. Saying that reminds Barry of why he's here and what his plan was. He pauses, looks away, and then with a defeated air tells Wally of the doomed plan he had to bring Wally back from the dead. He's in the middle of telling him about seeing his mother/Speed Force when Wally interrupts him. "That explains why I just saw Jason!" He exclaims. When Barry looks confused, Wally rolls his eyes and says, "Robin. The second one." When Barry nods, Wally continues. "I went a bit nuts here when I first got here. This place is the only place I can go. Every time I run somewhere I always end up back here. I was pissed, yelling about why I couldn't leave when Jason appeared. He said he wasn't the real Jason and that he was the Speed Force. He told me what this place is and why I'm here." Wally looks directly at Barry, his expression sure and knowing. Barry looks away in guilt and shame. When he turns back Wally is still looking at him, expression unchanged. "Kid," he says, voice breaking. He stops, takes a breath, and tries again. "Kid, I can't just leave you here. You've got family, friends, Artemis, back home missing you." Barry runs his hand over the top of Wally's head, through his hair. "You're still just a kid, Wally. You don't belong here." Wally sighs. "I made my decision, Barry. I knew what I was doing when I went to the North Pole. And yeah, it didn't exactly go as planned. But I'm dead, Barry. And that can't change." Barry stared Wally down. For the first time he noticed the carefully hidden pained expression in his nephew's eyes, along with a hint that Wally knew something Barry didn't. When Wally realized he'd given something away he moved to the edge of the hill, staring out at the sea. Barry followed him. "Alright kid, out with it. You know something. The Wally I knew wouldn't take staying here laying down. He'd be fighting to the last breath to go home." Wally winced, but didn't say anything. Barry's eyes widened and he said slowly, "You don't want to leave." He caught Wally's eyes. "Do you?" The tension between uncle and nephew was so thick not even knives could cut it. Finally Wally spoke, "The Speed Force....has a plan." "A plan?" Barry said in disbelief. "Yes, a plan," Wally said, turning to face Barry. "I can't tell you without doing damage to time, but the Speed Force brought me here for a reason. The world's getting more and more dangerous, and something is coming. I can't tell you what," he said as Barry opened his mouth to interrupt. "What I can tell you is, that something is coming and I need to be here to help stop it." Wally put his hand on Barry's shoulder. "I know you feel guilty, but you shouldn't," he told the older man, voice filled with emotion. For once in his admittedly short life, Wally completely serious. "I don't blame you and you shouldn't either." Wally turned his head to the side as if he'd heard someone call him, but there was no one there. He turned back, his face filled with sorrow. "It's time." The space behind Barry exploded, the wormhole back to the real world coming into existence. Wally pulled Barry in for one last hug. "I know you're grieving. I know and it sucks. But you've got to let go, Uncle Barry." Wally broke the hug and stepped back. Barry felt the wormhole behind him pulling him in. In one last act of desperation he lunged forward trying to grab Wally's arm and bring him with him, but Wally dodged him. Barry's last image of his nephew was of him smiling sadly and then he was gone. Barry closed his eyes as he was dragged back through the wormhole. It spat him back out onto the empty racetrack, only minutes after he'd left. Barry laid on the ground, defeated and depressed. The grief he'd felt since first seeing Wally disappeared had doubled upon losing him a second time, but the guilt was gone. The kid didn't blame him for what happened and that made losing him slightly more bearable. Barry dragged himself to his feet, pulled the cowl back over his head, and starting running home. The whole way there he kept thinking about Wally's final words. "You've got to let go." Barry finally understood what he meant. He let go of his denial that Wally was dead, and his anger that he both died and that Barry couldn't bring him back. Acceptance was always the hardest part of grieving for him. Had been since his mother's death. But if he was going to be able to move on, it had to be done. Acceptance sucks but it was needed. "Thanks kid," he thought to himself. "I'll make you proud."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Constructive criticism always appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm kinda borrowing from CW's The Flash, at the very least their version of what the speed force looks like. And I know that Young Justice never really had Jason Todd's version of Robin on the show, but Wally is good friends with Dick Grayson, so I figured he would have at least known Jason as Dick and Batman were training him to take Dick's place as Robin. As always, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.


End file.
